ABSTRACT
The ASEAN Defence Ministers’ Meeting-Plus (ADMM-Plus) has achieved a level of effective cooperation hitherto unmatched in contemporary Asia Pacific multilateralism. Despite its relatively large membership, the ADMM-Plus has eschewed problems that plague the ASEAN Regional Forum arguably by behaving as might be expected from a minilateral club. This chapter analyses the effectiveness of the ADMM-Plus according to three attributes of minilateralism, namely group size, group composition and institutional nestedness. Indeed, the ADMM-Plus’s pursuit of pragmatic and defence collaboration, undertaken by a select group of like-minded members, seems at odds with ASEAN’s long-standing emphasis on open regionalism and inclusive multilateralism. Nonetheless, the progress enjoyed by the ADMM-Plus is not a given.
